22 May 2015

Dead Whales Washing Ashore on the California Coast

dead whale washed ashore by the incoming tide and wind-driven current

I'm going to use the dead whales washing ashore on the West Coast to show you how whale scientists have been misleading the public for decades about why toothed whales (odontoceti) beach themselves.As to the recent West Coast incident, here's a link with the latest scientific opinions (link) about why the dead baleen whales are stranding. Marine Fisheries Services biologist Justin Viezbicke, coordinator of NOAA's West Coast Stranding Network, said "the appearance of higher than usual numbers may be a function of a strong onshore current and wind conditions bringing ashore whales that otherwise would decompose in the ocean."The above correct statement was supported by Mary Jane Schramm, who said, "One of the reasons we are seeing such a cluster at one time is we have very strong winds that have been blowing consistently washing things onto shore.” (link)These two quotes show that whale scientists are well aware that a strong shoreward current will indeed wash a carcass into the beach. In fact, it's hard to imagine any adult that does not know a floating whale carcasses always floats downstream like everything else drifting at sea.Now view one of these two videos of dead whales washing up (link) (link). Notice that the waves are breaking in the surf zone at right angles (~90 degrees) to the coastline. In general, wind-driven current approaching at right angles drives the breaking waves higher up the beach (link). As the tide rises, the carcasses get pushed higher and higher. When the tide falls, the carcasses are left on the dry sand at the high tide mark.Here's the big surprise: All stranded whales, including live ones, go ashore with the flow of the surface currents.Here a link that explains why in more detail.This verifiable fact is easily observed at every whale beaching so why is it that whale scientists tell us that dead whales wash up with the flow of the surface waters but never mention that live whales do the same?If you arrive at the beach soon after a stranding, you will see the waves breaking in the surf zone. Watch a hundred videos and scan a thousand pictures taken shortly after a beaching; live whales never strand when the sea is calm. They are guided ashore during a rising tide at the same time the wind is driving the surface currents shoreward.But you never hear a whale scientist say that strong shoreward currents and wind conditions guide live whales ashore. Instead, they tell you that something was wrong with the pod leader and the others just follow the sick one to the beach because they love each other so much. It really plays on the heart strings doesn't it. Toothed whales love each other so much that they are willing to die for each other. This is a total fabrication.Whale scientists ignore surface currents during live strandings.

surface currents wash both live and dead whales ashore

The flow of the current just off the beach often changes in complex ways. For example, if wind-driven current approaches from the north at ~45 degrees, the mass of water will push south along the shoreline. In this case, a carcass will float south, bouncing along the bottom until reaching a jetty, rock, pier, or strip of land that extends out opposing the southern flow. The portion of the hard bottom extending out into the sea will naturally block the carcass's southern progress. In this fashion, many whales may be carried to the exact same spot along the beach simply because any further movement south is blocked. Once stalled, stranded whales would then be washed up to the high-tide mark and left high and dry when the tide recedes.This is the reason jetties, piers, rocks, and land mass that extends out to sea, opposing the flow of the alongshore surface currents, trap a lot of sand and also trap more stranded whales than any other area along the beach. This is also why large hook-shaped land masses opposing the normal flow of the current capture a lot of sand and stranded whales. The point is that current, the same energy that carries each grain of sand to build a beach, is the same energy guiding lost whales thereto. This explains why most beachings take place on a beach. The two best examples are Cape Cod USA and Farewell Spit at Golden Bay, New Zealand.Whale scientists rarely mention the surface currents near shore or offshore. However, as admitted above, they know why dead whales strand at a particular spot in the sand. In fact, the flow of the surface currents, in deep water and in shallow, and the shape of the beach and the land mass not only guide dead whale, but, as mentioned above, also guide live whales to the same areas.This bit of truth proves that live whales, predestined to beach, are as LOST AT SEA as the carcasses washing ashore. Now here's what's astonishing: whale scientists have supposedly been trying to solve the centuries-old mystery of live whale beachings for many decades; however. all this time they never once check the tidal flow, wind-driven currents, breaking waves in the surf zone, the shape of the beach, and the specific flow and timing of the movement of the surface waters when it comes to live strandings.Makes you wonder why they overlook such basics during live strandings yet apply them when a dead carcass wash ashore.Why hide such facts?The answer is simple. If whale scientists admitted that surface currents directed live whales to the beach, it would be the same as admitting that all stranded whales, dead or alive, had no sense of direction. The conclusion forced upon them would be that something had disabled their navigation system prior to stranding. The public would then demand to know why. In other words, showing that live stranded whales were guided ashore by the surface currents would put the Navy and the oil industry in the hot seat, which in turn would get the scientists who told the truth blacklisted from any more grant money. This would be a career buster because these two groups supply 97% of all the money spent worldwide on whale research.The only real solution for an honest whale scientist would have been to tell the truth as soon as the obvious occurred to them. But they don't do it because they know they will be cut off from ever getting another grant. This is the dilemma they've faced since the 1970s. The longer they postpone coming clean, the more tainted they became. What are they going to do now? Are they going to tell the truth and say we've known that live whales go ashore with the flow of the surface current for 30 years? I doubt they have the nerve.Solving the centuries-old mystery of why whales beach is not rocket science. There's lots of clues if someone points them out to you. For example, even observed up close or in a video or in a picture, you will never see a healthy whale or dolphin with a functional biosonar system feeding, playing, or cruising near the beach when the seas are rough and waves are breaking in the surf zone.The reason is because the breaking waves stir up the sand and deposit millions of tiny bubbles that block their sonar signals. Under such conditions, the biosonar system of healthy odontoceti will not light up what's directly in front of them. Neither does their vision penetrate the sand and bubbles. They have learned over millions of years to stay out of the rough surf when the breaking waves fill the water with deposits that block their acoustic vision.This means that every whale and dolphin (odontoceti) you see in the surf zone when the water is filled with sand and bubbles was LOST long before they got near the beach. These lost souls were guided blindly into the surf zone by reduced drag created by the shoreward flow of wind-driven surface currents coupled with the inflow of a rising tide. They swim into the heavy surf because they had no idea where they were going before they even got close to the beach.Whatever disturbance knocked out their biosonar could have easily knocked out the biosonar of all their pod mates at the same time. It would be similar to one big bang destroying the hearing of a boat load of scuba divers all at once. Once they are lost at sea, whales and dolphins would not be able to swim against the flow of the current because drag forces would turn their streamlined bodies and point them downstream. This is also why whales pushed from the beach during an incoming current will always turn around and come right back to shore. Moreover, the only time rescue teams are successful at getting stranded whales and dolphins to swim away from shore is if they release them shortly after high tide crest and begins to wash out towards deep water. Only then will the acoustically blind whales slowly swim away from the beach.

When the shoreward wind is strong, whales cannot be coaxed to swim out to sea even with the tidal outflow because strong wind-driven currents over power the outbound tides. The only way rescue teams can supposedly save the whales is to truck them to a different beach where the wind does not oppose the outbound tide. There's more below on the delusion of saving lost whales.The facts are simple: All whales destined to strand, dead or alive, are guided into the path of least drag created by the shoreward flow of the surface currents. These same whales are guided back to deep water only when the current flows away from the beach. The fact that successful releases occur during the outflow become obvious once you know the truth.This truth is like the nose on your face. It's in plain sight, but we ignore it. The giveaway to the deception is the fact that, when it comes to live strandings, whale scientists never talk about the flow of the surface currents, the direction and speed of the wind, the times of high tide and low tide, and the simple fact that all stranded whales, dead or alive, are washing in and out with the flow. The same thing is true when a pod of LOST dolphins is washed into a backwater lagoon by the strong inflow through a narrow channel. The lost dolphins swim with the current until the tide drops and they end up laying in the mud. The rescuers come in with the TV cameras rolling and pick up the lost dolphins and transport them to a beach where the current can wash them out to the sharks. The media then declares the dolphins were RESCUED!On the other hand, you will see healthy coastal dolphins cruising and chasing small fish when the waves are less than about 2 feet and water is clear and not packed with sand and bubbles. Let the surf get a little rough, and the healthy dolphins head offshore to deeper waters where their sonar system works just fine.Experts have NEVER investigated seafloor upheavals as a source of injury in diving whales. Nine out of ten earthquakes that occur on this planet occurred in the backyard of the whales that beach themselves. Why is it that whale scientists have never ever wonder if a powerful undersea quake has ever injured a diving whale?Now let me tell you what's really going on along West Coast beaches?

The cold bottom water on the West Coast is normally upwelling near the beach. This process causes the surface flow to move away from shore back out to sea. As explained above, whales with no sense of direction, dead or alive, do not strand during periods of upwelling because the surface currents guide them out to where the big oceanic sharks are waiting (link). This means that in normal times there are likely up to 30 times more lost whales floating many miles off the West Coast than ever hits the beach.

whale washed ashore by the incoming waves and tide

Investigate for yourself. The next time a whale strands in your area, check for upwelling, check the wind direction and speed, check the wind-driven currents, waves breaking in the surf zone, look for sand and bubbles in the water near shore, check the tidal flow, rip currents, flotsam washing in with the whales, storms offshore, offshore currents, times of high and low tides, the lay of the land at the beach, jetties, piers, land the extends out opposing the current, the color of the water both near shore and as far offshore as you can see, and any other conditions that might alter the flow of the surface current. You'll see clearly that stranded whales, dead or alive, always go ashore when and where the surface currents guide them. This means only one thing... all stranded whales have no sense of direction. That's why they wash into the beach.

The fact that 30 times more dead and dying whales travel offshore and never reach the beach should shock West Coast marine conservationists.

The upwelling currents stop from time to time and the surface currents then flow in towards the sand. That's when both the dead and live animals, seaweed and other flotsam starts washing ashore. Here's a website (link) that explains how this works. Read the site and you'll never again wonder why a whale or dolphin strands on the West Coast, or anywhere else in the world.That all live stranded whales and dolphins are directed to the sand by the surface currents means only one thing: a prior injury (link) has disabled their acoustic sense of direction. After their biosonar stops working, they simply swim or float ashore in the path of least drag, which is always downstream in the direction of the surface currents.

Isn't it a bit shocking to realize that the answer to the centuries-old mystery of why whales mass beach themselves is because they were LOST? Isn't it even more shocking to realize that our best whale scientists never once discussed the fact that the surface currents always pick the stranding beach for live whales?On the other hand, they have been fully aware for decades that in order to "rescue" stranded whales and dolphins, they must ALWAYS release them when the surface currents and tidal flow are washing out to deeper water.

On the other hand, Japan does not have trained rescue teams that know a successful release must take place when the tide is washing back to deep water. Below is a video of a recent whale stranding in Japan. The rescuers did their best but they did not wait until the currents were flowing back to sea. Take a look at what happens when the try to release the poor lost whales into incoming currents.

So think about this long and hard. They know that to accomplish a successful rescue for the sake of the news media, that the whales must be released when the tide is washing out to sea. They know that stranded whales are pushed to high tide mark and left in the sand when the tide washes back out. They also know that when the wind-driven surface currents, overpower the outflow of the tide, that a so-called successful rescue is impossible, so that's when they pull out their long needles and put the whales to sleep or they shoot them in the head saying they were not healthy enough for release.

Besides, all these so called successful rescues are really nothing more than pushing lost whales out to deep water on the outgoing flow so that the sharks waiting offshore can catch a meal. In other words, whale rescue teams are feeding sharks, not saving stranded whales.

The rescue teams also want to make sure that there is always a mystery behind beachings because it helps them in their donation seeking. Notice on this website how the begging is done. They even have donation plans so your gullible grandmother can donate her estate after she's dead. There are all kinds of ways lonely challenged persons can give they're life savings to the rescue teams. They are playing on the heart strings of the whale-loving public to enrich themselves with their scam rescues.

Saving whales is big business and the management of these groups pay themselves millions annually. As long as the money keeps rolling in, the mystery of cetacean strandings will never be solved, especially by the current group of liars.

Watch the video below. It shows you exactly what happens when a whale they are holding, waiting for the tides to start flowing out, escapes from their grip. This is the perfect example of what I'm trying to teach you. Notice that there is nice wind blowing ashore. Notice also that the whale gets away a little too early. The poor animal is totally lost. It crashes into the rock maybe a dozen times. This whale will end its life in the belly of sharks. It has no chance to defend itself.

The raw truth is that some type of man-made pressure disturbance or natural seismic upheaval, up to 3,000 miles upstream from the stranding beach, has either killed them or injured them in a way to knock out their navigation. They are as lost at sea as a blind man thrown overboard in the middle of the ocean.

Just like water always runs downhill--lost whales, dead or alive, will always swim downstream with the flow of the surface current, in the path of least resistance (drag).

In toothed whales (odontoceti), loss of echonavigation is caused by either deafness or by barotraumatic sinus injuries. You already know that deafness causes loss of echonavigation. What you might not know is that sinus barotrauma can do the same thing. This is so because the sinus air bounces sound around inside the head is such a fashion to make biosonar work. If air leaks out of the cranial air spaces, especially out of the air sacs between each cochlea, the animal's acoustic sense of direction fails. Check it out be reading "The Acoustic Function of the Air Sacs."

The cover-up has been ongoing for maybe 50 years! During this time, one brief sentence from an honest marine mammal explained why whales beach themselves. This sentence also revealed what most whale experts have known for 50 years.

In 1962, Dr. Francis Fraser, the curator of marine mammals at the British Museum of Natural History offered the following insight on barosinusitis while commenting (link) on the mystery of why whales beach themselves. He said: "It is very easy to imagine a condition in which the air-sac system has broken down, so that it is no longer reflecting, and, with the isolation of the essential organs of hearing disrupted, the animal may lose its sense of direction.

The lone remark was not a new discovery. Dr. Fraser knew all his peers were well aware that a sinus injury could cause odontoceti to lose its sense of direction.

I should also tell you that sinus barotrauma is the least injury a whale can suffer that eventually leads to a slow torturous death. One other point: low frequency noise exposure causes sinus barotrauma long before it causes deafness.

You might also enjoy reading about the hydrostatic function of the air sinuses (link). Some of larger sinuses serve as air reservoirs so that the smaller air sacs that isolate one cochlea from the other have a supply of extra air for deep diving. I should also add here that odontoceti MUST hear in full stereo. Each ear must be isolated from the other if echonavigation and location is to function. This is why some of the larger sinuses act as scuba tanks to keep the small air sacs filled at depth. When the air is compressed to the point where the air sacs no longer isolate each cochlea, odontoceti have reached their maximum depth and the point at which their biosonar no longer works.

The air in the nasal air sacs also serves to generate echonavigation clicks (link). A barotraumatic injury or strain in this area of their anatomy might cause a tone or volume disruption that could lead to biosonar malfunction.

The most likely cause of direct cochlea injury (deafness) in whales is exposure to underwater explosions. However, to injure a cochlea is not so easy because, as mentioned above, these hard-boned structures are protected by foam-filled air sinuses and air sacs.

I used to think deafness was the big issue. That's why I changed the name of my research group from the Moby Dick Society to the Deafwhale Society. Then about 25 years ago, I finally understood that the sinuses and air sacs were far more vulnerable to underwater noise and pressure disturbances than the cochleas.

Sinus barotrauma is the slightest injury a pressure disturbance might cause and yet the most deadly. Sinus barotrauma is also the most common injury in all marine mammals, diving birds, sea turtles, and all underwater life with swim bladders and/or air pockets, including scuba divers.

The US Navy, Big Oil, NOAA, NMFS, and whale scientists all know this to be the truth!

They also know the most-likely cause of the sinus barotrauma in diving whales is: (1) vertical thrusting, extremely shallow, seafloor earthquakes between 4.7 and 7 magnitude, (2) undersea volcanic explosions, (3) military sonar, (4) oil industry airguns, and (5) the rare times when a heavenly body slams into the water's surface near the whales.

Many times in the past, vertical thrusting earthquakes have generated powerful compression waves that kill great whales outright, leaving their carcasses floating on the surface. This recently happened in Chile when an earthquake killed 20 Sei whales (link). As shown on the left, it even happened near Vancouver Island in 1946. (Ref: The Oregon Statesman Wed Jun 26 1946).

Here's an old newspaper report that tells about exploding volcanoes, dead fish, and even dead whales. Be sure to read the bottom part of the article (link). Here's some more on explosive volcanic activity (link).

And, believe it or not, in January 1842, in the Vancouver area, the US Navy War Sloop Falmouth, experienced a severe shock of a seaquake lasting 20 seconds. The ship shook and trembled violently. (link)

These violent disturbances in ambient water pressure are especially dangerous to diving whales and to ships on the surface. Don't take my word; do a little research on your own. Click on this (link) and read 4,979 eyewitness accounts from sailors that have experienced earthquakes at sea and lived to tell the story. Here's another (link) to over 2,000 eyewitness reports of submarine upheavals that happened on the seafloor in the backyard of whales and dolphins.

So what happened upstream to cause the recent beachings?

The normal California current flows south from offshore Alaska and down passed Vancouver Island, Washington State, Oregon, and California. Not long ago a big underwater volcano blew up (link) and likely killed a lot of animals, whales included. Toxic gases might have played a part in many deaths? It's still active so more animals can be killed.

Listen to and watch an undersea volcano blow up on a Smithsonian video (link) and you'll understand how these events injury whales and other marine animals.

There were also some strong undersea earthquakes just north of Vancouver Island and near Alaska that also likely killed some whales and other deep sea animals. The most suspicious event was a magnitude 6.1 that occurred on 24 March 2015 along the drop-off edge of the continental shelf near shore (link). This quake was felt by people 1,500 km from the epicenter. The shifting seabed moved horizontally. A lot of seismic vibrations in the horizontal plane moved from the edge of the Continental slope out to sea and could have injured every whale within 50 miles of the epicenter.

Take a look (link) at this chart. You'll be shocked by all the earthquake activity in the last 3-4 months north of where the animals are washing up. Learn this program and you can do your own stranding research.

The danger to whales during undersea earthquakes is old knowledge purposefully suppressed by whale scientists. In fact, upheavals on the ocean floor have been generating enormous shock waves that have kill sea critters with enclosed air pockets and swim bladders throughout history. Whale scientists can not be so stupid that they don't know it. The truth is they will not tell you about it because the actual cause of death involves the number one word on the US Navy's most taboo list. That word is barosinusitis. The reason is because barosinusitis (sinus barotrauma) is the slightest, most-deadly injury is diving whales. Sinus injury is not only caused by natural seafloor upheavals, but also by Navy sonar, oil industry air guns, and explosives.

The US Navy has a lot of secret acoustic devices they are about to put into operations. These devices will kill a lot of whales. It's hopeless for me to think I can save them alone. Others must learn the truth and demand that whale scientists stop lying. They've told so many stupid lies--we could easily expose them to the entire world and the world will believe us. Spread the word. Link to my articles. Help me save the whales from the scientific fraud that is killing them.

The Navy has a monumental legal reason to keep you in the dark. It involves 18 clauses inside the original Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. These clauses force our government to protect whales to the "best available scientific information." Sounds great doesn't it. Our whales are protected by the best science available. Wow... don't you just love that idea.

But hold on a minute! What if there is no scientific consensus that sinus barotrauma destroys their sense of direction and kills them? What if there is a scientific argument on the issue? As long as the scientists are in disagreement, there is no protection under law against instruments that send out an intense burst of ambient pressure changes that blow out their sinuses.

Now I see a little light flickering on in your head. You're starting to think that if the US Navy can prevent a scientific consensus, then they can easily defeat the main legislation that protects our whales.

That exactly what they have done with deafness. There's still no scientific consensus that sonar, explosives, and oil industry airguns cause injury. Oh there's plenty of research, but all this research NEVER arrives at a consensus. The US Navy and oil industry have been sponsoring a fake scientific argument about deafness that goes back and forth and NEVER gets resolved. As long as the Navy and oil industry is in control of all the research money, the lying scientists are willing keep on churning out argumentative opinions. They do this under the premise that this is the SCIENTIFIC WAY. In other words, a group of lying scientists proposes stupid ideas about what's killing our whales, and then another group use these false concepts as proven facts to advance their own stupid ideas and the SCIENTIFIC WAY marches forward, stepping for one dead whale to the next. It only takes one greedy scientists to fake his research, and then the rest start quoting the fake science as fact. It's a great tangled mess of never ending lies.

This means that as long as the US Navy and the oil industry can keep sinus barotrauma from gaining scientific consensus, the Marine Mammal Protection Act is a toothless scrap of paper and a big fat joke played on the American public. It's the same in other countries. Most laws protecting whales are modeled from the toothless laws in the US. Even the Endangered Species Act is loaded with similar "best science" clauses.

I recall back in 1972 when Navy lawyers were arguing with environmentalists. The Navy team got the bright idea that if they controlled the funding for marine mammal science, they would also control what became "best available scientific information." There were 18 such clauses in the 1972 version. Slowly over the years, Congress has gutted this version so much so that it's just one big trick on the whale loving public. This legislation needs to be burnt on the White House steps.

Think about this hard and long! Why else should the US Navy and the oil industry be the number one funding source for all whale scientists worldwide? Military sonar is the most deadly underwater acoustical assault weapon in the entire world. The taxpayer-money the US Navy spends for useless arguments has underhandedly turned whale scientists into crooks that would tell any lie for a Navy grant.

There's more, the Marine Mammal Commission, the biggest group of lying bastards that ever held a high-paying government job, was established to monitor the scientific research. What a joke. The Commission was filled with the friends of the US Navy. I had a phone argument in 1987 with the Commission's chief scientist, Robert Hoffman. Two days later, several US Navy CID agents showed up at my door, wanting to know if I was going to harm their boy. I asked, "If I harm him, why is it a US Navy problem?" They told me that he had called an admiral who had ordered the Navy to investigate me. After coffee and brief conversation, they apologized and walked out laughing.Bet on it--since the US Navy and the oil industry now control all the whale research in one way or another, whale scientists purposefully deceive the public so they can get grant money.

The situation is identical to the days when the tobacco industry paid for all the lung cancer studies. That was back when doctors were telling folks to smoke Camels, Lucky Strike, and Pall Malls and the Marlboro Man was riding tall in the saddle. One credit to the Marlboro man: He did tell the truth right before he died of lung cancer.Think about it hard! The tobacco industry controlled cancer research for 50 years. The same thing is now happening in the drug industry. BIG PHARMA is in control of the FDA and all drug research and we are their guinea pigs.

On the other hand, Dr. Kathy Burek Huntington, a veterinary pathologist working in Alaska is honest (link). She examined two stranded beaked whales. "They had bubbles of air within the blood vessels,” she said. "You know, this is just a classic lesion that you see when there’s an animal that suffered from barotrauma.”

After performing necropsies, she said "Seismic activity can also damage barriers within the whales’ bodies between gas-filled areas and the bloodstream." The barriers she refers to are the membranes surrounding the air-filled spaces in their massive heads. “For example,” Huntington explains, “if there’s blasting going on in an area, underwater blasting, that can create this kind of thing. It’s thought that really high intensity sonar is another possibility.”

I could not agree more. Dr. Huntington named three major causes of barotrauma in diving mammals: seismic activity like undersea earthquakes, volcanic explosions, seismic airguns, US Navy sonar, and explosives.

In summary, the animals washed ashore along the West Coast were killed/wounded over the last few months by the volcanic eruption and/or the seismic shocks north of Vancouver Island. They likely swam downstream for a week or so, died, sank to the bottom, washed along the seafloor for an unknown distance, refloated when decomposing gases formed, and then got washed up onto the beaches because the normal upwelling currents were no longer flowing back out to sea.

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